Virat Kohli tops ICC Test rankings after Edgbaston epic

Virat Kohli's 22nd Test century and his 200-run tally in the Edgbaston Test has vaulted him to the top of the ICC Test rankings for batsmen. He has dethroned Steven Smith, the former Australia captain, and is the first Indian to be No. 1 since Sachin Tendulkar in June 2011.

Kohli joins a select club, comprising Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsakar, Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir - the only other India batsmen to have reached the top spot in the Test rankings. He currently has 934 rating points, the most by any India batsman ever, and 14th on the all-time list. Donald Bradman, who reached 961 points in 1948, leads the list. Kohli is also ranked No. 1 in ODIs at present.

At Edgbaston, Kohli's remarkable efforts helped keep India in the Test despite top-order collapses in both innings. His first-innings 149 helped minimise the damage after India slipped to 100 for 5 and then 182 for 8 in response to England's 287. Kohli was the last man out, having got through a stern examination from James Anderson before opening up, leaving India with only a 13-run deficit. In the second innings, chasing 194, India's top order failed once again. Kohli was unbeaten on 43 overnight, and completed a half-century the next morning. However, he was lbw to Ben Stokes for 51, and India were eventually defeated by 31 runs. Kohli had tallied 200 runs in the match overall, while India's four other top-order batsmen - M Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane - mustered just 99 runs between them.

For a second straight overseas tour, Kohli has single-handedly carried India's batting line-up. So far in 2018, he has tallied 486 runs at 60.75. The other top-order batsmen - the four who played in the Edgbaston Test and Cheteshwar Pujara and Rohit Sharma, who were part of the series against South Africa at the start of the year - have scored 809 runs between them at 21.86.